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PC nomination candidate launches court challenge to overturn appointment

August 12, 2021   ·   0 Comments

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario nomination candidate Stella Ambler has filed an application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking to overturn the party’s appointment of Collingwood Mayor Brian Saunderson to be the party’s candidate for the 2022 provincial election.

The provincial seat for Simcoe-Grey is currently held by Jim Wilson, who resigned from the PC caucus in 2018 and has announced he will not be running for re-election.

Ms. Ambler announced in November 2020, that she would be seeking the nomination. She is a former Member of Parliament representing Mississauga South as a member of the Conservative Party from 2011 to 2015, and has lived in Wasaga Beach since 2020.

The PC party announced on June 4 that Mr. Saunderson has been named as the candidate for the riding of Simcoe-Grey for the upcoming election. The announcement was made by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

There was no party member vote in the riding.

Mr. Saunderson has served in municipal politics since 2014 and was elected as the Mayor of Collingwood in 2018.

“The PC Party claims to have the power to appoint the candidate in Simcoe-Grey,” Ms. Ambler said in a statement. “My position is that they do not have that power, and this is what we will be arguing in court. The PC Party has no authority to circumvent the democratic process in this riding,” adding that “under our party’s constitution, the PC party members in Simcoe-Grey are the only ones who are entitled to select their PC Party candidate for the next election.”

Ms. Ambler was one of four party-approved candidates running for the PC nomination in the riding.

In her court application, Ms. Ambler argues that PC Party official exceeded their authority in making the appointment and that they did not follow the rules of the PC Party constitution. She claims that in cancelling the nomination meeting and appointing someone to be the candidate, the party violated its own constitutional requirement to have an open, public, and democratic nomination process.

For their part, PC Party officials are relying on a rule that the PC Party Executive passed in January 2020. Section 6.5 of the Rules Governing Candidate Nominations purportedly allows the PC Party’s Provincial Nomination Committee, under instructions from the Leader, to “appoint” up to ten candidates for the upcoming Ontario election. 

Ms. Ambler, however, maintains that this new rule, passed only by the executive and not approved by the PC membership, is contrary to the PC Constitution, which is the supreme governing document of the Ontario PC Party.

When contacted for a statement regarding his appointment as the PC’s candidate and the court challenge, Mayor Saunderson declined to give an opinion on the issue, stating, “this matter is before the courts and involves Ms. Ambler and the Ontario PC Party. I have no comment.”

By Brian Lockhart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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